Ron Dennis has been a constant figure at McLaren since the early 1980s when his Project Four team merged with McLaren. That merger created one of the most dominant teams of the modern era and made Dennis a legend in the F1 paddock.

That time is apparently coming to an end.

The BBC reports that Dennis will be told by shareholders today that he must give up his role as Chairman and CEO of the McLaren Group, which includes the F1 team and McLaren Automotive (Update: McLaren emailed to let us know that Ron remains a shareholder and non-exec Chairman of Automotive), the company that builds everything from the 570S to the P1. Dennis owns 25 percent of McLaren along with Mansour Ojjeh, a longtime business partner who has 25 percent, and the Mumtalakat investment fund that owns the remaining 50 percent.

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Apparently, Ojjeh has fallen out with Dennis and disagreed with him vehemently in recent years, and has started working with the Bahraini Mumtalakat fund to oust his former friend.

Dennis first came under fire when he began work to find an investor to take back majority control of McLaren, but the Chinese backers that he found have fallen through and Ojjeh and Mumtalakat have not wanted to give Dennis majority control of the company. If he is removed from his post, there have been no reports of Dennis selling his stake in the company.

The removal of Dennis would be a huge change at the company, which has been molded after him and his famous obsession to every single detail and quest for absolute perfection in everything the company does.

The BBC says that the leading candidate to replace Dennis at the helm is American Zak Brown, a motorsports marketing pro who has also been linked to a top role with Liberty Media's takeover of Formula One. The BBC says that at this point, Brown would be more likely to accept the offer from McLaren. Brown could help entice needed sponsorship for McLaren, which is yet to replace Vodafone as title sponsor.